A few days after arriving in Auckland, we drove north to the historic site (Waitangi) where 'The queen’ (via her governor general) signed the country’s founding agreement with about 600 Maori chiefs. This agreement sort of ceded the land to the Maoris’ and it agreed that the UK would pay for any land it took. All a bit complicated and I look forward to reading more about it later. The situation seems to have a lot in common with the First Nations people in BC, Canada.